Monday, March 31, 2014

A preview of great things to come.

In August of 2013 I went to see the Big Boy 4018 being moved to a new location. The original article go lost when I transferred to this web site, so I have re-posted the pictures with a quick description for each.

The 4018 is not the Big Boy that is being restored by the UP. That's the 4014, which is about to leave California as of this writing.

The 4018 is actually in rather poor condition. In this picture, holes rusted around the boiler casing are visible.

The siderods have also been cut apart, allegedly after the 4018 froze up on the main line while being transported to the museum.

A gentlemen quizzed me on the meaning of all of these numbers.

The museum staff had greased all the joints and gotten the 4018 ready to go.

Here they are, posed.

Since the 4018 does not have any functioning brakes of its own, several tank cars were attached to provide additional brakes. The crew referred to this as a 'hospital train.'

This snappy BNSF unit showed up to haul the train.

Before its move, the 4018 was sandwiched between another large locomotive and a warehouse.

Posed!

The Big Boy and its train were headed to Downtown Dallas. We stopped at Union Station to watch it. Unfortunately, it was delayed by freight trains longer than I could watch. We did spot this nice old Warbonnet, though!